The invention relates to a bendable barrier boom arrangement designed to serve as a vehicle barrier. This barrier boom arrangement comprises a boom column, a barrier boom and a drive for pivoting the barrier boom between the blocked and the open position.
Barrier booms, which are implemented as bendable booms, are used in particular as parking barriers for controlling the entrance and exit of parking areas, as well as vehicle barriers for operating toll booths. Bendable booms are particularly suitable when the available overall height for the installation of a common, single barrier boom, which is implemented in one piece, is not sufficient. They encompass two barrier boom sections and an articulated joint that is pivoted about a horizontal axis and which connects the two barrier boom sections to one another. One of the two barrier boom sections is connected to the drive for pivoting the barrier boom up and down.
The barrier boom section which is farthest from the supporting barrier column of the vehicle barrier, and which will be referred to hereinbelow as the “second barrier boom section”, usually encompasses a substantially horizontal position. In the case of drives which are guided inwardly, this is usually carried out by means of a chain that is arranged parallel to the longitudinal axis of the first barrier boom section in the interior of this boom section, and which is connected to the boom drive. The chain passes around two chain guide rollers, with one chain guide roller arranged coaxially to the pivot axis of the first barrier boom section and the other chain guide roller forming the joint axis of the articulated joint between the two barrier boom sections and connected to the second barrier boom section in a rotation-proof manner. To support the forces which are created by the tensioning of the chain, in the direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the first barrier boom section, provision is made according to the state of the art for a metal bar or profile, respectively, which extends within the first barrier boom section parallel to its longitudinal axis.
Due to the required chain, barrier booms which are implemented in this manner disadvantageously encompass a relatively high weight, which leads to limitations in the length of the barrier boom that can be obtained, and to a high loading of the drive of the vehicle barrier. Depending on the weight of the chain, a high performance drive is also required, which has a negative impact on the dimensioning and the costs. A further disadvantage of the vehicle barriers which are implemented in this manner is that the production costs are relatively high.
It is known from the state of the art to provide barrier booms of vehicle barriers, for example of parking barriers, with luminous LEDs. A barrier comprising a barrier boom, which is implemented in one piece and which is movably supported on a console between an open and a blocked position, is disclosed in the European Patent EP 2 105 534 A2. The barrier boost is implemented as a light-permeable tube that encloses a strip equipped with light-emitting diodes. Provision is made in the case of this known barrier for this strip, equipped with light-emitting diodes, to extend substantially across the entire length of the barrier boom.
In the bendable barrier booms known from the state of the art, the chain requires a large amount of installation space within the first barrier boom section. As a result, these bendable booms cannot be illuminated by means of LED strips because space for an illumination is not available. The chairs and the metal profile would significantly reduce the space for the strip of light-emitting diodes and impair the light distribution of the LED light.